Marie K. Formad

Marie K. Formad (October 30, 1860 – February 21, 1944) was a Russian-born, American physician who worked for 52 years at Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia as a teaching surgeon, gynecologist, and pathologist. She served as a surgeon in the French Army in World War I from 1918 to 1919 and received the Honour medal for courage and devotion from the French government for her wartime service.

Formad was born October 30, 1860,^[1] in Russia. She moved to the United States in 1883.^[2] She graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886,^[3] with a thesis titled "Some Notes on Criminal Abortion".^[4]

Formad was elected to the post of vaccine physician for Philadelphia's Eleventh District in 1887.^[5] She worked for 52 years at Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, as a teaching surgeon, gynecologist, and pathologist.^[6][7][8]

During World War I, Formad accepted a commission as a surgeon in the French army in 1917.^[9] She served fourteen months, from January 1918 to March 1919, in a Women's Overseas Hospital (WOH) unit in France.^[10][11] She directed and performed surgery at a 125-bed refugee hospital at Labouheyre,^[12] supported by the National Woman Suffrage Association,^[13] working alongside doctors Laura E. Hunt^[14] and Mabel Seagrave.^[15] The hospital grew under Formad's direction, and served about 10,000 refugees during its existence;^[16] two of the American nurses at Labouheyre, Winifred Warder and Eva Emmons, died from influenza there.^[17] After the armistice, Formad went to Nancy to work as a surgeon caring for repatriating French civilians.^[18][19][20] She received the Medaille d'honneur from the French government for her wartime service.^[21]

She was the first woman member of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.^[22] With Calista V. Luther and two other women doctors, she ran an evening dispensary, the Medical Aid Society for Self-Supporting Women, to treat working women at a more convenient time than other clinics.^[23] She was a mentor to Catharine Macfarlane.^[24] She retired in 1938.^[3]

Her older brother Henry F. Formad, was a pathology professor on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, and served as Coroner's Physician in Philadelphia.^[4] Another brother, Robert Julius Formad, was also a pathologist, an expert on veterinary oncology.^[25]

Marie Formad cared for her older brother Henry in his last months; he died in 1892.^[26][27] She died February 21, 1944, in Philadelphia^[3] and was interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.^[1] She left her estate mainly to her two nieces, Marie and Charlotte.^[28]